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EIGHT ONTARIANS NAMED TO CANADA’S ROSTER FOR NOVEMBER TOUR; CAPTAIN CARPENTER RULED OUT THROUGH INJURY

Bryan Kelly, Rugby Canada Communications

TORONTO, ON – Canada’s Men’s Team is set to travel to Europe today ahead of a three-game November Test series against Georgia, Romania and Portugal on the 9th, 16th and 23rd.

The roster announcement follows Sunday’s Canada versus New Zealand Maori All Blacks game at BMO Field, which proved to be an excellent day for Canadian rugby as the 22,566 fans on hand set records as the largest crowd in Canadian rugby history.

Player Update for Europe

Yesterday’s game against the Maori All Blacks landed outside the official IRB test window, therefore a number of Canada’s top athletes were unavailable due for selection. Canada will see a boost for Saturday’s game as James Pritchard, Jebb Sinclair, Brett Beukeboom, Phil Mackenzie and Tyler Hotson are set to meet the team in Tbilisi on Wednesday.

However, it’s not all good news. Canada will be without the services of their captain, Aaron Carpenter, who will no longer be a part of the November test schedule after suffering an upper-body injury on Sunday afternoon.

Mike Scholz and Pat Parfrey will now switch back to Sevens and join Canada’s Maple Leafs Team preparing to travel to the Cayman Islands this week.

DTH van der Merwe is unavailable due to personal reasons. Jamie Cudmore, Jason Marshall, Sean Duke, Tom Dolezel and Nathan Hirayama will not join the team due to injuries.

Youngsters Benoit Pifferio (hooker) and Djustice Sears-Duru (prop) have been called up to the Men’s Team and will join the side in Georgia to boost the front row.

Veteran forward Adam Kleeberger spoke of the November opener against the Maori All Blacks: “although we didn’t have the result that we wanted against the Maori All Blacks it was a good start to what will hopefully be a successful tour,” said Kleeberger, who came off the bench for Nanyak Dala.

Kleeberger, who has 35 international fifteens caps dating back to his first appearance in 2005, knows what it’s like to play in Europe.

“I was a part of our November Tour in 2009 where we defeated Portugal, Spain and Belgium, but lost to Georgia. Georgia is a passionate side that will be a difficult test for us in Tbilisi,” added Kleeberger.

“It was a tough loss yesterday. I think we had a lot of our systems in place and our game plan started our well, but we made some handling and defensive errors. We can fix them for this week and keep on improving,” said Jon Phelan from the team hotel in downtown Toronto.

The Canadian second-row, who plays for Lille Métropole Rugby in France, is looking for a tough encounter next weekend.

“Despite being lower than us in the rankings, for us to win we’re going to have to get up for the physical confrontation and correct the errors from yesterday. They’re a team that plays with a lot of national pride, especially in front of their fans in Tbilisi,” said Phelan.

Canada will depart Toronto on Monday afternoon and endure a difficult travel schedule before arriving early in the morning on Wednesday in the Georgian capital of Tbilisi.

“It’s a long travel day for us today heading to Europe, but our Strength and Condition and medical staff have a concise plan for us so we know when we need to sleep and when we need to be awake to make sure we’re at the top of our game next Saturday,” added Phelan.